


so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light

by elisa_pie



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Dry Humping, First Kiss, M/M, Pining Jared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 14:19:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elisa_pie/pseuds/elisa_pie
Summary: Jared and Richard end up hiding in the same, tiny room.





	so give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for this fandom! I only started watching Silicon Valley a few days ago and was completely pulled in, by the show and by these two awkward nerds. I just had to write some Jared/Richard. Hope you like it! The title is from the Mumford & Sons song Ghosts That We Knew, because I had that song stuck in my head when I started writing this.

Jared opens the first door he sees after turning the corner and squeezes into what appears to be some kind of storage room. Not an ideal choice, but it will do, Jared thinks as he quickly closes the door behind him and promptly crashes into someone already hiding there.

“Ouch! What the hell—”

“Richard?” Jared asks, turning to face the figure leaning against the wall. “What are you doing here?”

It’s almost completely dark now that the door is closed, just the soft glow coming from the devices at the back of the room illuminating them. But Jared would recognise that voice anywhere. If it came to it, he’s pretty sure he’d recognize Richard just by smell. 

“What do you think I’m doing here?” Richard whispers. “I’m trying to hide from Erlich. He’s somewhere in the building, but doesn’t know where the meeting is and I’m not going to let him know if I can avoid it. What—what are _you_ doing here?”

“Same thing. He saw me as I was leaving to go back to the house, and asked about the meeting. I could not think of a convincing lie, so I ran away. And hid here.”

“You? Ran away? ” Richard asks and laughs. “I would have liked to see that.”

Jared smiles and looks down, thankful for the near darkness that helps to hide his expression. He wishes he could see Richard’s face though. He rarely gets the chance to be this close to Richard, and the physical proximity is heady enough. To be able to see every detail of every expression on Richard’s face, to be able to count his eyelashes if he wanted to—well, to be honest, Jared isn’t sure he’d survive that.

“I can leave, if that’s what you prefer. I admit that this space does not adequately fit both of us, but in case—”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Richard sighs. “If you leave now and Erlich sees you leaving, there’s a good chance he’ll find me too. Better not risk it, I guess.”

“We can wait until just before the meeting starts, that way you can sneak out at the last minute, or I can go first and make sure the coast is clear,” Jared suggests.

“Sounds like a plan.”

They settle into a comfortable silence—well, as comfortable as it can be for him, Jared thinks, his senses filled with Richard. After a few minutes Richard starts shifting, and Jared interprets those nervous movements as the first signs of another panic attack. So much is hanging on this meeting being a success, the future of Pied Piper at risk once again. Leaving Erlich and his aggressive negotiation tactics out of it was a good choice, one that Jared has already praised Richard for. It just means that Richard really needs to be on top of things.

“Richard, it’s okay, just breathe,” he says softly, taking a few deep breaths himself as a demonstration. “Relax. Everything will be alright.”

“I’m not panicking,” Richard says. “Not y-yet anyway.”

“Okay, that’s good,” Jared says, and suddenly feeling daring in the near darkness, moves his hands to Richard’s shoulders and squeezes, feeling the heat of Richard’s skin though his clothes.

He means for the gesture to to be reassuring, but Richard twitches and stumbles forward a bit, making a certain part of his body in contact with Jared’s thigh. A certain unmistakably _hard_ part.

Jared has no idea what the noise he makes is, and there’s no way he could have prevented it from leaving his mouth—not unless he had put his hand in front of his mouth and since both of his hands are still holding onto Richard... well, that wasn’t going to happen.

“Sorry,” Richard mumbles, trying to move his hips back. There’s very little room to move though, even when Jared reluctantly lets go of Richard and drops his hands down.

“No, that’s fine,” Jared replies, more than a little stunned, and well aware that his body is also reacting to this weird, wonderful turn of events.

“Sure, yeah. Totally—totally normal, nothing to see here, haha. Well, you can’t actually see much, so I guess that’s something. Small mercies.”

“Richard, I’m curious. Is it just my proximity or—I mean, does a stressful situation often cause this reaction…”

“Well, you know, um, how I call my laptop my girlfriend—although I really should stop doing that since it got us into so much trouble with Hooli before—”

“You said it was because it was the only warm thing that has touched your crotch in a while,” Jared answers, remembering the exact words and how they had made him feel at the time—a familiar mixture of sadness, fondness and lust, followed quickly by guilt. 

“Yeah,” Richard says and rubs his face. “And now you’re.. well, right there, and we’re stuck here, and it’s just... I’m sorry. I’m sure if we’ll ignore—I mean, it’ll probably just go away.”

“Yes. Look, Richard, I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“You’re not,” Richard says.

“In any case, maybe I should go. I’ll be careful not to alert Erlich to your whereabouts—” Jared says, resigning himself to leave.

He starts to move sideways towards the door, but before he can crack the door open to see if the coast is clear, he feels Richard’s hands on his hips, stilling him.

“No. Don’t go,” Richard says softly, almost too quiet to hear.

Jared shuffles back and the movement brings their crotches in contact again. There’s no way Richard is going to miss the fact that Jared’s hard too. He really should escape while he still can, before he does something embarrassing like come in his pants or moan so loudly someone outside will hear them and everything will be ruined—

For a moment Jared thinks he really did moan, but it turns out it was Richard. Richard, who’s now breathing harshly into the small space between them. Jared can picture it clearly even though he can barely make out Richard’s face—mouth hanging open, face flushed, eyes half closed. Jared has never seen what Richard looks like when he’s aroused, but he has imagined it many times, late at night, unable to resist the images flooding his mind. Then Richard’s hips stutter forward, bringing delicious friction and breaking the last of Jared’s resolve. He’s not going to leave this dark, cramped little room. He’s not going to leave Richard. He couldn’t.

“I just—” Richard starts, then swallows audibly. “I—I need…”

“Yes,” Jared breaths, giving and experimental thrust with his hips and making Richard moan again. “Whatever you need, Richard. It’s alright. I want to help.”

Their mouths find each other in the darkness—Jared isn’t sure who makes the first move but before he knows what’s happening, distracted by the rhythm and friction between them, he’s kissing Richard, and Richard is kissing him. The only thing Jared can do is to hold onto any part of Richard’s body he can reach--arms, the side of his neck, eventually carefully carding his fingers through Richard’s hair and deepening the angle of their kiss. He breaks off only to catch his breath, his hips still thrusting forward, matching Richard’s rhythm.

“Oh, Richard, this is…It’s—I can’t even describe it.”

“Then don’t,” Richard pants, his hands sneaking down to Jared’s ass and squeezing. “Just keep moving, _please_.”

Jared does his best to hold off his own orgasm, telling himself that this isn’t about him, it’s about Richard, what Richard needs. But it’s too good, too much, the heat and the pressure and Richard’s hands on his ass, claiming Jared for his own, if only for the moment.

It’s over too quickly, Jared moaning against Richard’s neck as he comes in his pants. He should feel mortified about that, but he can’t bring himself to care as he lowers his head on Richard’s shoulder, coming down from a high he never thought he’d experience, not like this, not with Richard. So what if his pants are ruined. It’s not like anyone can see, it’s not like he needs to be anywhere—and then it hits him. Richard does. 

“Oh, _no_ , Richard, I’m sorry,” Jared says as he lifts his head up.”You—you have to be in that meeting soon and I ruined—”

“You’re seriously thinking about that now?” Richard pants, one of his hands on Jared’s hip and the other still clutching Jared’s ass. “Jared, you--you didn’t ruin anything--”

“I would offer to change pants with you, we’ve done that before, but that’d be useless at this point—”

“Jared!” Richard hisses.

“Yes?”

“I haven’t—I mean, I didn’t, not yet...”

“Oh. Oh! That is great news!” Jared beams.

“Yeah—well, no, not _really_ —”

“Don’t worry. I have a plan!” Jared says, and drops down to his knees. There’s hardly enough room to move around comfortably, but he doesn’t care as he reaches for the fastening in Richard’s pants, hardly able to breathe in his hurry and excitement at getting Richard’s cock out. Too bad it’s so dark, he wanted to see it more clearly, wanted to see every part of Richard up close, to worship that pale skin with his hands and mouth. Jared pushes those thoughts away. He needs to focus on this moment, to enjoy it, however brief and hurried it is.

“Jared, you don’t have to do that,” Richard says, breathless, hands hovering around Jared’s shoulders.

“Oh, I know,” Jared answers brightly. “I want to.”

With that he takes Richard’s cock in his mouth and starts sucking, determined to make it good. Richard is making the most delicious little noises, evidently trying to be as quiet as he can. If they were somewhere else, somewhere they couldn’t be caught, maybe then Richard wouldn’t feel the need to censor himself. He could be as loud as he wanted. Jared wouldn’t mind.

Jared can feel Richard thighs quivering and thinks he must be close now. Richard’s hands find their way into Jared’s hair, tugging gently while his hips stutter helplessly under Jared’s mouth. Jared looks up as he hears Richard’s head hitting the wall with a soft thud, and then Richard is coming, his hands twisting in Jared’s hair as he lets out a broken moan.

Careful to swallow every last drop of come—he wouldn’t want all his hard work at making sure Richard’s pants stay spotless go to waste—Jared finally lets go and carefully puts Richard’s cock back into his pants.

Jared stands up awkwardly in the small space, suddenly aware of the state of his own pants again. He’s fiercely glad of it, though, to have had that experience, that closeness. It's a good thing he didn’t go for the blowjob straight away—he’s sure he would have come in his pants that way too, his own hand pressing against his cock though the fabric, but it was better this way. So much better.

Richard’s hands find his waist again, and Jared thinks maybe it’s just to steady him, but then Richard’s face moves close to his and they’re breathing air from each other’s mouths. Jared turns his face away, heart beating fast and panicky in his chest.

“I—I’m sorry—” Richard starts.

Jared can’t quite see the expression on his face but based on Richard’s voice he can guess that those beautiful eyes are wide open in panic.

“No, I’m sorry, I just thought, since I swallowed…”

“Oh, no, no no, I don’t care about that,” Richard says quickly.

Jared breaths out a relieved sigh before he pushes Richard against the wall again and kisses him, too happy in the moment to consider if he should. Richard’s mouth opens on a gasp and Jared swallows it down, swallows every sound Richard makes, giddy and amazed at how soft Richard’s lips are, how wonderfully they move against his.

All too soon Richard’s phone rings, the sound loud and intrusive in the quietness between them. Jared jumps back so quickly he’s worried he might have sprained something. As Richard answers the phone, the glow of the screen illuminates part of his face for a moment, and Jared looks away quickly, afraid of the expression he might see there.

“Yes, I’ll be right there. Okay. Bye,” Richard says and pockets his phone. “They want me in now. Dinesh says there’s no sign of Erlich, so that’s good.”

“Yes. Good,” Jared says, nodding even though Richard probably can’t see it. He moves back as much as he can to let Richard get out of the room.

“Oh, wait a second,” Richard says, his hand already on the door handle. He starts shuffling and for a wild moment Jared thinks he’s undressing, but Richard just shrugs off his hoodie and offers it to Jared.

“For you. Um. So you can, cover up, if you need to.”

“Oh. Thank you, Richard, that is so thoughtful,” Jared says as he takes the hoodie and holds it close to his chest.

“Yeah. Well,” Richard says and opens the door, quickly checking if anyone’s out in the hallway. He turns back for a second and smiles, and in the light coming in from the hallway Jared can finally see his face, still slightly flushed, smiling and beautiful, and then he’s gone and Jared’s alone in darkness. 

He waits a moment to give Richard a head start—after all, it would look terribly suspicious if anyone saw them leaving the same room right after another. Jared brings the hoodie up to his face and inhales deeply, before tying it around his waist and arranging it so that the stain on his pants is not visible. He takes a few deep breaths and pushes the door open.

*

Jared gets back to the house first, and he hopes that this means the meeting was a success instead of a disaster over too soon. He briefly considers leaving Richard’s hoodie behind in his car, claiming he lost it or accidentally forgot it somewhere. But he brushes the thought away—and also the vivid image of himself, sleeping in Richard’s hoodie, feeling safe and warm. _Stupid_ , he thinks as he parks the car and goes into the garage. _You've already ruined everything._

After cleaning himself up and changing into a new pair of underwear and pants, Jared carefully folds Richard’s hoodie. He brings it up to his face for one last inhale before walking out into the workroom. There’s no one there, and Jared is glad to have one more quiet moment all to himself. He sets the hoodie on Richard’s chair and sits down at his own work station, slowly breathing in and out to stay calm. He can do it, he’s stayed calm for Richard in situations much worse than this.

Erlich is the first of the guys to arrive, loudly complaining about being left out of the meeting. Jared greets him politely and focuses on his work again. Richard arrives soon after, with Gilfoyle and Dinesh behind him, and Jared makes sure to greet them all in an equally friendly, inconspicuous way. Richard’s eyes meet his for a second before quickly looking away, and Jared feels bereft, hungry for Richard’s eyes on him.

“How did it go?” Jared asks, relief washing through him when Richard grins at Dinesh and Gilfoyle. At least what happened didn’t end up ruining the future of the company, even if it might have ruined everything else Jared had been quietly dreaming about.

“Amazingly well, actually,” Richard says, bouncing a little on his feet. “They seemed to like Pied Piper, and are seriously considering funding us.”

“So you didn’t screw it all up without me?” Erlich asks as he comes out from the kitchen with his yoghurt. “I don’t believe it. You were acting like a nervous little boy in the last meeting we attended together. They would have eaten you up, like hungry lions feasting on a poor little lamb.”

“Lions and lambs don’t actually—”Jared starts.

“No, he was fine, super confident and relaxed,” Dinesh says, sounding surprised himself. “He even made a joke.”

“Richard telling a joke? Now that I would have liked to see,” Erlich says and scoffs.

“Well, you should have, because they laughed. Ha! They thought it was funny--that _I_ was funny,” Richard says and smiles, clearly proud of himself.

“Well well well, looks like my executive decision to sit this one out saved us all,” Erlich says, walking back to the kitchen to finish his yoghurt and ignoring Richard’s comments that he had nothing to do with today’s success.

“And, yeah, nothing’s signed yet, but I have a really good feeling about this,” Richard says, nodding and smiling. “We can celebrate later once we’ve made sure everything’s ready for the test.”

Richard goes to his work station and puts his bag down, pausing for a moment as he sees the hoodie. Jared swallows, and hopes that Richard is not upset by this reminder of what happened between them. Maybe he should have left it in his car after all, or in the garage. But Richard just picks up the hoodie and puts it on before sitting down and taking out his laptop.

“Hey, weren’t you wearing that hoodie when we left the house? How come it was here?” Gilfoyle asks as he sits down at his computer and looks at Richard.

“Oh, Richard forgot it so I brought it here when I had to get back to do some work,” Jared says quickly, maybe a bit too quickly, panic rising in his chest.

He’s thankful that Gilfoyle seems to accept that answer and directs his next comment at Dinesh instead. Jared glances up at Richard, who seems determined not to look at him, staring at his laptop screen instead.

They all work in silence for a while, the deadline for another test looming ahead. The peace and quiet is occasionally interrupted by Gilfoyle and Dinesh bickering with each other. When Richard gets up and goes to the kitchen, Jared stands up immediately and follows him, steeling himself for rejection, begging for forgiveness. He’s thankful that the guys seem too distracted by their current argument to notice anything is amiss, and also thankful that he already drafted a resignation letter. Just in case.

“Oh, hi,” Richard says, looking up quickly from the cup of coffee he has just poured for himself. “Did you, uh, did you want coffee too? I can—if you want. Coffee?”

“No, thank you,” Jared interrupts. “Richard. I’m sorry if anything we did made you uncomfortable. It was—well, it took me by surprise, to say the least, and I—”

“Jared, don’t worry. It’s fine.”

“Is it? You keep blushing and avoiding my gaze. Are you sure you’re feeling well?”

“Yeah,” Richard says and stirs his coffee, “just, you know, distracted.” 

“Of course. Before we know for sure that the deal is through, and with that test coming up soon—” Jared starts.

“No, not that—I didn’t mean,” Richard says, closing his eyes and sighing. 

Jared looks on as Richard turns to face him, leaning in closer and lowering his voice before continuing. “It was, um, pretty hot? What happened, uhm, before that meeting?”

“Oh,” Jared says, almost too distracted by their sudden proximity to take in what Richard is saying. Richard is so close, almost as close as he had been in that dark little room, but now Jared can see him clearly, so clearly it’s like Richard is the sun he just can’t help leaning into. Did Richard really mean—?

“So,” Richard says as he moves even closer, “I thought, well, maybe we should do that again sometime? I'd like that. But I, uh. I’d like to be actually able to see you while we do it, if that’s—if it’s something you want to—and if you don’t, it’s f-fine, I just—”

“Yes,” Jared says, unable to hold still any longer.

He gently lifts his hand to Richard cheek and looks into his eyes, smiling and drinking in the sight of Richard Hendricks smiling at him. They lean slowly towards each other until they’re kissing, lips moving not with the urgency of before, but with all the sweet, slow languidness Jared always imaged when he allowed himself to think about this, about holding Richard in his arms.

“Oh, wow,” Richard says as they finally break apart, their arms still around each other.

“Was that alright?”

“Yeah. Really alright,” Richard answers and hugs him tighter, burying his face in Jared’s sweater. "Fucking amazing."

“Richard. I have a confession to make,” Jared whispers against Richard’s hair.

“Oh? What—”

“I briefly considered stealing your hoodie so that I could sleep in it,” Jared sighs, delighting in the feeling of Richard’s arms around him.

“Oh, fuck, that’s—that’d be alright. I just, I have one request,” Richard says, looking up at him.

“Yes.” Jared says, nodding seriously. “Anything.”

“That you, uh. Sleep in my bed. With—with me, and—wearing nothing else. Just the hoodie,” Richard says in a rush, his face flushed and eyes hazy with lust as he looks up at Jared.

Jared grins at him, feeling so happy he’s bursting with it. “I'd love that.”

Richard grins back at him before leaning up and kissing Jared again.

 


End file.
